[glchen]

Originally Posted by ctownboy

The PROBLEM with picking out the best players from the Steroid Era is that BECAUSE of the steroids no one REALLY KNOWS WHO the best players were during that era.

As a hypothetical example, compare Mark McGwire to Wally Joyner. Both played First Base. Both played in the American League. Both played on the West Coast. Both played during the late 1980's and early 1990's.

Now, if you compare their stats, you would say that Mark McGwire is more deserving of the Hall Of Fame because he hit many more Home Runs. But what if McGwire juiced and Joyner didn't? What if McGwire didn't take steroids or some other PED and he didn't hit 583 Home Runs. What if he hit 50 or maybe even 100 fewer Home Runs because he wasn't on the juice? How would Joyner and McGwire compare then?

What if because he took steroids, McGwire was on the All Star team more and had more MVP votes? Take away the steroids, reduce the number of Home Runs (and Runs scored, RBIs, Walks, Slugging Percentage and OPS) and guess what? McGwire doesn't look like a much better player than Joyner. In fact, take those things away and Joyner may have made more All Star team and gotten more MVP votes. So add those to his stats and maybe Joyner looks like a more deserving Hall Of Fame candidate than McGwire.

But, because of steroids, Human Growth Hormone and other PEDS, we wont know who was helped because they cheated and who were hurt because they didn't and we wont know the extent of either. In short, we wont REALLY know WHO the BEST players were during that era. So, I am in favor of NONE of them getting in. Unless, of course, these players want to come forward and say the are clean and then take tests to prove it. Or, they want to come forward, admit they cheated, tell exactly what they did and then have people judge them for it.

David

+1